Back Where We Belong, Side By Side
by The Bitter Silence
Summary: When Bucky is found, somehow alive after seventy years in a glacier, he's introduced to the next group of trouble Steve's gotten himself involved in - the Avengers. The first thing he notices after the fact that, holy Christ, he's on a flying aircraft carrier, is that Tony Stark reminds him of someone. And it's not Howard. Tony is just trying to keep his secrets secret. Tony/Bucky


_Part I: the lost one_

* * *

_March 14, 1942_

_ Howard walked off the back of the stage. The Expo had gone well; despite the fact that the hovering car hadn't exactly lived up to his hopes, he had several new investors and the older ones had renewed interest in Stark Industries. He weaved his way through the crowd towards the makeshift tent that held the controllers for the machines being used at the Expo. On his way there, he found himself bumping into a smaller body. The stranger tripped over his knee and dropped a notebook and pencil on the cobblestone. _

_ It was a boy, about thirteen, dark-haired and blue-eyed. Howard's eyes slid off of his face when he noticed what exactly the boy had been drawing before he fell and picked it up. It was a diagram of the exact car he had been showing before, complete with half-finished sketches and written musings over how exactly it worked. Normally Howard wouldn't take much notice, but there was one mostly-finished sketch in the upper left corner that was correct. A thirteen-year-old boy had figured out how his hovering car worked. _

_ "This is impressive. What's your name?" Howard asked, handing back the notebook. The cogs in the back of his head started to turn._

_ The boy eyed him nervously. "Antonio Rizzo," he muttered. His Italian accent was clear. _

_ "Antonio, I've got something I want to show you. Don't tell anyone later, though. It's military."_

_ "Don't have anyone to tell, Sir. Orphan. And why would you want to show _me _something?"_

_ Even better; no one would miss him if he disappeared. Under normal circumstances, Howard would never experiment with a potentially deadly process on a child, but there was a war to fight. Realistically, it would be better for a child to die then the handpicked super soldier candidate. "You're a smart kid. I can't tell you what it is here, but I'll explain it later. Shall we go?" Howard said, changing directions and walking towards his car. He didn't look back, but he knew this 'Antonio Rizzo' was following anyway._

* * *

The team – and fuck, since when did Tony have _a team? _This whole thing was utterly insane_ – _had been called back up to the helicarrier pretty much immediately after the battle with the Chitauri and Loki had been won. They had stopped for shawarma on the way back, mostly just to piss off Fury. They had just saved the whole goddamn _world_; they deserved an off-day at the very fucking least.

Needless to say, they were all kind of annoyed at Fury at the moment, except for perhaps Cap, who Tony wasn't sure was capable at being annoyed at anyone. Angry, maybe, but so far that seemed to only extend to Nazis, alien invaders, and Tony Stark.

…Thankfully, that last part seemed to be resolved. Mostly. Probably.

Anyway, the point was, none of them were expecting anything more enthusing then a long, boring debriefing and possibly a stack of paperwork to make the whole thing just that much worse. What was waiting for them at the conference table in the helicarrier's control room was infinitely more interesting and headache-inducing then a debriefing and a stack of paperwork could be. Not necessarily interesting in a good way, either.

Tony blinked and rubbed at his eyes with one hand in as dignified a manner as he could manage. There was _no way _this was happening. Just…no. One WWII era veteran back from the dead was enough. One that he knew _personally _on top of the one who had kind of been his hero was just insanity. It should be noted that Tony had a very flexible idea of insanity after all the shit he'd seen in his lifetime. He opened his eyes again.

No luck. James 'Bucky' Barnes was still sitting awkwardly at the table, looking confused and not a damn day older then the last time Tony had seen him, all dark hair and eyes and lips downturned slightly into a natural pout.

Jesus Christ.

Cap was much more vocal with his sentiments. "Bucky?" he called, voice cracking slightly. Tony almost winced at the emotion packed into that one name; guilt and longing and grief and a destructive sort of desperation. It made Tony want to scuttle out of the room and leave them to their private moment, which was absurd, because he had as much a reason as Cap to be choked up about Bucky's return. Not that anyone knew that.

Fury, of course, chose that moment to make his grand entrance. "He's real, Captain, it's been confirmed. Someone fished him out of the ice a couple days ago and defrosted him. I had him flown in as soon as I heard."

Cap swallowed audibly. Tony wasn't sure whether it was him or Bucky that moved first, but either way, they met halfway in a hug and Steve muttering, "Oh God, Bucky, I thought you were _dead…_"

It was that moment Tony's brain chose to register that Bucky's left arm was missing. He must have landed on and shattered it after the fall. Well. At least he had a new project now. Bucky and Cap were still conversing quietly as Tony ran through several possible prototypes for Bucky's prosthetic. The thing was, though, Tony didn't _want _it to be a prosthetic. He wanted it to be an extension of Bucky's will, as controlled and seamless as his natural arm would have been.

Fuck, Tony had _missed _Bucky. Even back then when he had been fourteen and wild-eyed, nobody had ever understood him like Bucky, so full of his own fire and determination. And even now, goddamn near seventy years later, he still wanted Bucky to look at him across the dinner table and say, "Antonio, you make some mean meatballs and pasta." But that wouldn't – couldn't – happen, unless he wanted the US government, SHIELD, and HYDRA on his ass in an instant. He was just going to have to suck it up and fucking deal. He could do it. Definitely.

Oh who was he kidding? Being close to Bucky, _seeing _him again, and yet being so far away would hurt like a bitch. But Bucky would tell Cap, who would let SHIELD know in an instant, and that could only end with Tony being a lab rat or a puppet.

"Well, two out of three ain't bad, I suppose," Fury commented dryly. "If…no, when, we find Rizzo, we'll have all of them."

Oh fuck. Fury knew about that? Could this day get any worse?

Cap looked up at Fury, confusion showing in the wrinkle between his eyebrows. "Rizzo?"

Fury looked straight at Cap and explained, "There was enough of the serum for two people before you were injected. One of the scientists brought in a teenaged orphan to make sure it was working, without approval, of course. His name was Antonio Rizzo. We never found out which scientist it was. Apparently Rizzo was blindfolded."

Cap stared. "They…experimented on a _child?_"

Fury shrugged. "Illegally. Howard Stark took him on as an apprentice of sorts during the war, and he disappeared about seven years later, reportedly in his presence. Speaking of which, Stark, do you –"

"Dad never said anything about an Antonio Rizzo or any other subject of the serum other then Capsicle here," Tony interrupted. At the very least he now knew SHIELD was looking for Rizzo, knew to be more careful around the team and anyone with SHIELD connections. This was a secret he'd been keeping since he'd been injected, and it would stay exactly that: a secret.

Fury leveled him with a steady stare. Tony glared back.

"All right," Fury conceded finally.

Bucky stepped forward from behind Cap. "You're Tony Stark, Howard's son? I thought you'd be taller. And older."

Amazingly, when Bucky said that, Tony didn't get the immediate urge to punch him square in the face. "You're Bucky Barnes? I thought you'd be dead. And frozen," Tony drawled. He'd have to check the arc reactor when he got home; it was starting to hurt.

A slow, achingly familiar grin slipped over Bucky's face. "Oh, I think I like you already."

Tony's previously small smirk widened. "Careful, I don't think Cap approves of anyone that isn't made up of apple pie or the national anthem."

"Damn good thing I've never listened to him, then."

Cap stared a bit more. Tony was pretty sure the other Avengers were staring too, but they weren't in his direct line of sight. They could think what they wanted; Tony was going to milk this until Bucky read his file and realized exactly what kind of person Tony Stark really was or he and Cap made off for wherever it was they were going to go now that this was all over with. Whichever came first.

"So," Bucky said, "what's this I heard about invading alien armies? Or are we talkin' about some new HYDRA offshoots here, 'cause I was never able to tell the difference."

* * *

_Howard pulled up to the curb in front of the old antiques store and stepped out of the car. He motioned for Antonio to follow him, who did so, if slightly reluctantly. Howard fished the key to the antique store and the building hidden behind it out of his pocket. He was one of the few who had the keys and twenty-four hour access to the testing facility. Two minutes later, he and Antonio were standing inside the underground lab that housed Project Rebirth. _

"_This is a testing facility for a project the US military has been funding. It's a process for improving the body and mind of the subject and ideally, it will create a superhuman, a new breed of soldier to fight the war against Hitler," here Howard looked down at Antonio, "Or at least that's the idea. We're almost a hundred percent sure it will work properly, but we're not certain. We've already decided on the candidate for the first super soldier."_

_Antonio said flatly, "So that's why you brought me here. To be the first human test subject. I don't have much choice in the matter, do I?"_

_Howard shrugged. "Not really, no. If it helps, I have no intention of kicking you back out on the streets once I've confirmed you're alive."_

_The boy gave him a long, assessing once-over. Then he nodded once and sighed, "Let's get this over with."_

* * *

Bucky observed Tony Stark out of the corner of his eye. This was _bothering_ him. So he said it out loud. "You look familiar."

Tony glanced at him quickly before shifting his gaze slightly to look at something past his shoulder. "Family resemblance," he replied tightly. Bucky shrugged in a display of acceptance.

The thing was, though, that the parts that seemed familiar weren't the ones he shared with Howard. It was the variation in his expressions, the way he spoke with his hands in a way Howard never had, the faint hazel behind the brown of his eyes in certain light, the way he held himself in every line of his body as hard and strong as the vibranium Steve's shield was made of. Bucky tried to figure out exactly where he'd seen all this before, but he couldn't quite place it. All he knew was that he'd known someone a lot like Tony Stark back before he'd been frozen.

The Avengers, as Director Fury had introduced them, had dissolved into chattering amongst themselves. Bucky was still trying to wrap his head around the whole 'an alien god tried to take over the planet' thing, and he thought he was doing pretty well. The future was a pretty damned strange place. "A team, huh? What're y'all planning on doing now that the world's been saved?" he asked Steve.

Steve shrugged. "I'm not sure. Director Fury hasn't said anything about it, so the general consensus seems to be that we're free to do whatever we want unless – until – someone tries to destroy the world again."

Bucky frowned. "That's stupid. You guys are a team now, shouldn't you be sticking together?" He was right, although he wasn't totally unbiased: Tony Stark was bugging him, and he was going to figure out why. That couldn't happen if he never saw the man. At this point, the other Avengers had stopped their conversations in favor of watching his. No one said anything.

"Well," Tony said finally, "to quote Bruce here, 'we're not a team, we're a time bomb'. We managed to work together to save the planet, but I doubt we'd last very long before trying to kill each other in any other situation. Besides, I don't play well with others." The last part was said in an amused tone and accompanied by a half-smile, like some inside joke no one else understood.

Fury interjected, "It's a good point. If you guys are going to be successful instead of lucky, you need to be able to actually get along with each other. The Avengers are a team now, it's probably damn time you started acting like it. The problems between Captain and Stark alone are enough to screw this whole thing over before it's even truly off the ground."

Steve's jaw tightened, "Director, Stark is –"

"Oh don't you dare pin this on me, Mr. Star-Spangled Man with a Plan –"

"This is _exactly _what I was talking about!" Fury snarled, slamming one fist down on the glass conference table. "You two can't interact outside of battle other then squabbling like children! I expected this from Stark, but you could at least not rise to the bait, Captain!"

Okay, so obviously Tony and Steve didn't get along very well, if at all, which was kind of strange, because Steve got along with almost everyone. He was too damned likable, especially when he was making an effort, which he would be in this situation. So either Stark was just naturally standoffish, which hadn't been Bucky's first impression, or he was making a specific effort not to get along with Steve.

Huh.

Fury continued, "The top seven or eight floors of Stark Tower sustained structural damage, but the rest of it is still stable. It'll take you a month at most to refit said floors."

"Oh _hell _no, I'm not living with these nutjobs on a permanent basis," Tony snapped. "One of us will end up dead before the end of the month_._"

"Afraid it will be you, Stark? This is non-negotiable unless you feel like dropping all of Stark Indsustries' contracts with SHIELD."

"Give me two weeks," Tony bit out, daring everyone to say something with the look in his eyes. He was like a cat when backed into a corner, hissing and glaring at anyone who dared come close. With that, he turned on his heel and walked out. Bucky raised an eyebrow; Tony Stark was a complicated man.

Good thing Bucky liked puzzles.

* * *

_The steel doors of the casket opened slowly, releasing a rush of steam. Antonio was breathing heavily and sweating. Howard couldn't be completely sure, but he seemed slightly more muscled then before. He offered Antonio a hand out, which he gladly accepted._

"_How do you feel?" Howard asked, watching him carefully._

_Antonio shook his head. "I'm hearing something in the back of my mind…it sounds like a baseball game. Dodgers?"_

_Howard raised an eyebrow. The tests he had planned originally were going to have to be more extensive, apparently._

* * *

Thanks all for reading, and extra-special love for my beta, Maverick14. This was written for a prompt at the lj community avengerkink.

Having Everything yet Nothing will remain my main focus until that story is finished. An update can be expected relatively soon.

~The Bitter Silence


End file.
